Harris County keeps 'dead' voters after data proves weak

CRYSTAL SIMMONS

Published 11:00 pm, Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Harris County voters thought to be dead will not be purged from the voter rolls before the election unless a family member confirms their death, Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Don Sumners said Monday.

Last week, 9,018 voters received notice that they would be purged from the voter rolls if they did not respond within 30 days of receiving the letter. After receiving an estimated 300 calls Monday, Sumners announced he would wait until after the election before expunging voters who did not reply.

“In response to voters’ confirmations they are alive and my learning the weakness of the matches in this file, we have decided that persons not responding to the challenge letter will remain on the roll until after the Nov. 6 election. One should err on the side of caution before removing a registered voter from the roll,” Sumners said in a statement.

The letters were sent at the Secretary of State's prompting following a law passed last year by the state legislature. As a result, counties are required to update voter rolls quarterly according to data from the Social Security Administration Death Master File. The county normally uses data from the Bureau of Vital Statistics to purge dead voters.

On Aug. 22, Betsy Shonhoff, state voter registration manager with the Secretary of State's Office, sent notice to county tax assessors that letters should go out by Sept. 7 notifying voters they may be purged to comply with the law. Voters were sent notice if names, birthdays or social security numbers contained in state voter registration information showed a match in the Social Security Administration database. Both weak and strong matches were sent letters, Shonhoff noted.

Voters whose families do confirm they are dead will be removed from the roll before the election.

“One take away from this applies to all mail from the Voter Registrar or the Tax Office: Open it, read it and respond, even if the response is to call us,” Sumners said in a statement. “Oral confirmation from the registered voter will be accepted.”